1. Field of the Invention
The invention generally relates to packet parameters processed at a receiving end of a data communication system, and more particularly, to centralized recording and processing of received packet parameters.
2. Description of the Related Art
For a packet-based or frame-based data communications system, such as a 1x Code Division Multiple Access 2000 (1x CDMA 2000) system, a 1x Evolution-Data Optimized (1x EVDO) system, an IEEE 802.11a/b/g system, and a Long Term Evolution (LTE) system, etc., the packets or frames communicating in the system on physical layers can be one of several types. Each type of packets or frames are defined by an underlying set of physical layer parameters, e.g. modulation type, coding type and rate, payload data rate, packet or frame duration, type of information being carried, number of users being addressed to, etc. The underlying set of parameters can dynamically change from packet to packet (or from frame to frame). A mechanism is typically adopted in a receiver of a packet-based or frame-based communications system to ensure that all of the parameters needed for decoding and post-processing of a packet (frame) are either dynamically made available to the receiver as the packet (frame) is being processed, or generated as part of the decoding process itself. Furthermore, status/quality information may be generated as part of the packet (frame) decoding process. Generally, the parametric information associated with a received packet (frame) can be categorized into at least 3 groups: 1). characterization parameters for that packet (frame) known beforehand, 2). characterization parameters discovered as part of the packet receiving process at physical layer, and 3). decoding status and/or packet (frame) quality information available after completion of reception and decoding of that packet (frame) at physical layer.
In addition, many packet (frame)-based data communications systems are designed to fragment a packet (frame) into smaller quanta and transmit each individual quantum associated with that packet (frame) in an interlaced manner with quanta associated with other packets (frames). The number of packets (frames) being thus interlaced can be different among various data communications systems, and is generally defined by the standard corresponding to the associated data communications system. For such an interlaced packets (frames) structure, some of the characterization parameters may stay the same from one quantum to another quantum of the fragmented packet (frame), while others may dynamically change with each quantum of the fragmented packet (frame). At the receiver end of a packet (frame)-based data communications system, higher layered information processing entities typically use the parametric information of the quantum of the packet (frame) provided by the physical layer to determine a next course of action for a payload data, as well as to generate performance metrics (packet or frame error rate, quality of reception, etc.) for the underlying physical layer.
FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a conventional receiver of a generic data communications system. In a receiver 100, the known-beforehand characterization parameters of the received packet (frame) or fragmented quantum thereof are transferred to a physical layer receiver module 10 in the physical layer. After a packet (frame) is received by the physical layer receiver module 10, other characterization parameters are discovered during the packet (frame) receiving process and status/quality information is generated. The physical layer receiver module 10 then transfers the discovered characterization parameters and the status/quality information, along with payload data, to other parts or higher layers of the receiver 100 for subsequent processing. Note that the parametric information from the physical layer receiver module 10 is individually maintained and separately communicated to the other parts or higher layers of the receiver 100. Thus, the higher layers of the receiver 100 must perform synchronization, maintenance, and sorting of the parametric information before the parametric information can be used. However, the distributed nature of the parametric information may result in inefficiencies in time and/or space when information is extracted. Specifically, information is inefficiently extracted by various parts of the receiver 100 when parameters to process associated payload data and/or generate physical-layer quality metrics are required. This is because each of the other parts or higher layers of the receiver 100 would have to read all of the individual pieces of parametric information one by one, associate them with current interlace being processed, and keep them synchronized to the system time reference, thereby requiring extra processing resources, e.g. clock-cycles required for processing, read and storage. This lowers data-delivery throughput in high data-rate data communications systems; especially for those that interlace different types of packet (frame) streams on underlying physical links. Also, this may result in a complex debugging process due to lack of availability of compact information about a given packet (frame) stream being debugged.